<p>Son was a freshman in college and received his first D ever in Italian, a language he has had no experience in. I called his advisor concerned he might lose his scholarship. She was very nice and actual spoke to me; she explained that Italian was a difficult language and it wasn’t the end of the world as his other grades were good. I never told my son I called as I knew it was over the top, but as a boy he could let all his grades drop and lose the scholarship and I wasn’t about to let that happen!</p>
<p>My daughter is living at home while looking for a job in another city. She has a job here and has long hours, so I spend time each day search sites for job openings in her desired city. I do email these openings to her, so she does know I am looking. Most of the time she has already seen the job as she looks on the weekends; I am just trying to get her out of the house, so I feel like this is really helping me ;-)</p>
<p>snowball, you may have done this already but why not set up daily email alerts to your daughter’s email account to flag jobs that may interest her? Once the alerts are in place, your job is done.</p>
<p>In October one of my d’s friends died. I called her coach, who is also her work study boss, to ask him to keep an eye on her. I didn’t talk with him again for a couple of weeks, but he let me know that, eventually, she had been able to talk with him about the loss. He was able to lighten her load at practice and work, and give her a safe place to “not talk about it” for a while, but be cared for. He thanked me for telling him: he said it’s so much better for everyone if information like this is shared. If this is helicoptering, I’ll accept the label.</p>
<p>When my oldest was applying for a very selective program, I did not know what type of tests to expect.That’s when my helipcopering genes kicked in.
I went alone to a second info session, I pestered the Rep until she was more specific about the tests. She was very annoyed with me, but I got enough info from her to prepare my kid.
She got in.</p>
<p>Worst? I don’t know that the things that I do are bad…I do know that my kids would be mortified if they knew all the times I stick my fingers into things at school.</p>
<p>Example:</p>
<p>Due to a conflict as old as the school, the drill team girls could never be in the HS musical. The old director left and the new lady continued with the same dates. Then she programed a show that called for a lot of tap. AS SOON as the show was announced, I emailed her and told her that if she was willing to change the date of her matinee, she could have the best tappers in the school in her show. She did it. That year there were 5 drill team girls in the show; this year, 13. Whenever the other drill team moms talk about what fun their Ds are having in the show, I just want to say, “You’re welcome.”</p>
<p>Worst? I don’t know that the things that I do are bad…I do know that my kids would be mortified if they knew all the times I stick my fingers into things at school.</p>
<p>When my son was a soph in high school, he had just arrived in his AP USH class when the principal came on the loudspeaker and asked him to come to his office. My son is the shy/quiet/never-get-in-trouble type, but he was still a little discombobbled (sp???) at hearing the request, so he immediately went to the principal. It wasn’t a problem; the principal just wanted him to participate in a survey. By the time my son was done, his AP class was over. He went to the teacher to hand her his homework and she said that it was “late” and deducted 50 points.</p>
<p>I called her, and she said…“This is a college-level class, and late work gets penalized.” I told her, “In college, the principal doesn’t call you out of class!” I told her (I did NOT ask her), I TOLD her, “You will put those points back.” She did.</p>
<p>I felt it was unreasonable for her to expect a sophomore (son was just 15 at the time) to have the presence of mind to think, “I better turn in my homework,” just after hearing the principal call him down to the office. As far as I was concerned, the teacher should have prompted him and said, “you may not be back in time, so turn in your homework now.”</p>
<p>We have computer access to grades and attendance records. At least once a year we find a glaring error online. (Teachers are human, after all.) Excused college visit absences marked “unexcused”, papers marked as 0 because the teacher misplaced the paper, a 91 test grade entered as a 9, etc. I know that I should force my kids to take care of these things, but it’s often easier and quicker for me to swoop in with an email to fix the situation.</p>
<p>I’ll give ya a “two-fer” since my own isn’t very exciting…</p>
<p>I’ll answer first for my sister. Her VERY YOUNG daughter wanted to walk to school. NO sidewalks. Busy street. She let her. But she followed behind her hiding behind trees (this child later got her law degree at Columbia). My own D would walk into traffic without looking until she learned to drive (A.D.D.!). I’m amazed anyone in our family is even still alive!</p>
<p>For me - I guess the worst is actually that I’ve been LIVING on CC for the past year. And that included some e-mail queries on a few things to a few colleges. I do feel it’s necessary because never went to college so I was of NO help when it came time for my D to start thinking about applying. Her school/counselors were worse. I never took an SAT or ACT, had no CLUE what a subject test/SAT II was, FAFSA…what the heck? I STILL only learned what CSS Profile was in the past 2-3 months. So…I’ve researched her options to death because she won’t. And I need for her to have a good job so she can take care of ME as I become even more doddering. </p>
<p>I reiterate “Everything I know about college I learned on CC”.</p>
<p>ohmygosh, no…wait! I hope this doesn’t have to be only about academia. I’m going to tell on someone else - again! MUCH more fun this way.</p>
<p>I’m at Disneyworld riding the boats of It’s a Small World. The woman in front of me sits between her girls (ages about 5 and 8?) with her arms around them. She first tells them not to put their arms out. That’s good, right? Then she says not to touch the boat at all. Hmmm. </p>
<p>Then she says “Don’t move your head from side to side…just move your eyes”. I can only assume that she must have heard the story that someone fell off in the front of the boat and was run over and died.</p>
<p>Hmmm…I guess these are more overprotective than fluttering away in their business. Oh well…what’s done is done. Funny anyway.</p>
<p>*papers marked as 0 because the teacher misplaced the paper, *</p>
<p>We had one of those… My kids went to a Catholic school, and one time the religion teacher insisted that my son didn’t turn in his religion homework. My son told her that he had. Later, the teacher called our home and apologized. She had forgotten that she had given my son’s homework to the campus chaplain to look at. When the priest returned it to her later, she realized her mistake.</p>
<p>My D had the bad grade on misplaced paper too! I guess I “helicoptered” this one but I have NO shame. 6th grade. Teacher allows kids to trade papers and grade each others. But allows them to TAKE THEM HOME to grade! It’s the “sloppy copy” (rough draft). My D keeps asking for it, she need to do her final draft. Girl (who is actually a good friend of my D’s, it was just a mistake…and 6th grade!) forgets until after class on the day it is due. So she revises and turns it in the next day. Teacher says “too bad” - you got an ! which turns into a C when I deduct for lateness. People like to say “eh, 6th grade, who CARES!”. But this was HUGE. One C and kids at this school aren’t allowed to take a foreign language in Jr. High. My kid had been on the “fast track” since first grade. I called the principal. We had a meeting. Teacher says “that other girl didn’t take it home, she told me”. We know this girl well, so I later asked her and she said “THAT’S NOT TRUE! I TOLD HER I TOOK IT HOME AND FORGOT TO BRING IT BACK!” Meantime, principal does tell the teacher to change the grade. Principal also takes me aside and says “Oh, I know this teacher’s family, she’s got a good heart”. WHAT? </p>
<p>This was the end of the school year and I wasn’t hearing from the teacher to say she changed the grade. So I called and was directed to the GC. They checked with the teacher who (AGAIN lies and) tells them she did change it.</p>
<p>So I’m thinking all is good, right? Report card comes in the summer. My D had nothing but As in that class…and gets a C final with a recommendation that she NOT get to take a foreign language. It’s summer, no one to call. Too late. For that my kid lost a year of foreign language, or the weighting that would have come with it as it was honors, etc. It put her a year behind all her friends and I’ve been bitter ever since. My ears are red just recalling this. </p>
<p>So I guess I crashed and burned on my helicopter attempt.</p>
<p>We didn’t have computer access to grades until Son was in 11th grade. He has Asperger’s Syndrome and is natually inclinde to forget to turn in work, etc. So without computer access, for two years I assumed that any 0s were his own fault. Then Jr year he got a 0 on a TEST in Comp Sci. I jumped on him - “How can you sit in class and take a TEST and forget to turn it in??!!” He said that of course, he did turn it in. When he went in to talk to the teacher, the teacher found it in a different stack.</p>
<p>I think the spacey-not straight A students are more likely to have the mistakes stick. If an A student has a 9 recorded on a test grade, either he or his parents are going to say, “I don’t think so.” But if a struggling student has a 9 recorded, his parents are likely to just think he’s failing again.</p>